


Shinsuke

by ToraRyusei



Series: Earth [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Doubutsu Kingdom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-13
Updated: 2018-06-13
Packaged: 2019-05-21 22:40:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14924219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToraRyusei/pseuds/ToraRyusei





	Shinsuke

Shinsuke. On the outside he looked to be nothing more than an elderly man with wispy gray hair and a rather healthy build for his age, yet his past was far more than his kind face let on.

 

The son of unknown nomadic people, Shinsuke was adopted into a temple that resided in the plateaus of Asia. It was a place in which fostering a child was not uncommon, and they welcomed the child—whom they would name Shinsuke—as one of their own. There he was taught their philosophy, and honed his mind, as well as his body.

 

Shinsuke was a prodigy. His mind absorbed knowledge just as quickly as his body grew stronger. For him everything was easy. He knew he was unique as he watched his peers fail to grasp things that took him mere days to understand. He was never arrogant about his talent; rather he saw it his duty to help his peers. Thus, he became a sort of leader of the new generation of monks. The teachings of the temple could only satisfy him for so long, however.

 

As the years passed, Shinsuke would find  the place he called home in turmoil. The military government that governed the surrounding lands invaded and declared the mountainous land the temple sat upon as part of their nation.

 

Shinsuke was appalled. The soldiers had done everything shy of placing the elders against the wall and firing, yet they simply allowed their disrespectful behavior to continue. Though it seemed the elders had merely given in to fear and abandoned their dignity, their reasoning—once explained—was simple, yet sound. The elders explained that it would do no good to spark the ever-growing tension between the two groups. Soon they would come to understand their way of life, and leave the monks alone.

 

Months went by, and still the government’s soldiers continued their abuse of the monks and their temple. Shinsuke could finally stand no more, and attacked one of the soldiers. A short fight broke out in the stone halls of the temple, though the brevity of the conflict was to be expected when one side had firearms while the other had swords. The result, however, was most unexpected.

 

Shinsuke stood in the faint beams of light that shone through the cracks of the temple roof. His hands dripped crimson blood over the fallen bodies of three soldiers he had killed bare handed. He stared down at them and felt no pity for their souls, no remorse for his actions. It was justice. The soldiers soon discovered what had occurred and began to slaughter the monks. A terrible conflict broke out that forever desecrated the peaceful temple atop the plateau, killing several on both sides.

 

It lasted no less than a night, and what should have been a one-sided massacre became a struggle that ended with the soldiers being hunted down and killed. Shinsuke was among the survivors, and the leader of the monks who had decided to stain their hands with blood. Shinsuke took the blame for the incident personally, and despite there being several others who had defiled the temple teachings that all lives were sacred, he asked the remaining elders to be the only one to face exile.

The disgraced Shinsuke though saw nothing wrong with his actions. Something else entirely occupied his mind, he became fascinated with how easily he killed. There in the temple he was taught life was precious, and it was immoral and inhuman to kill another person. Yet he had done it with such ease, without realizing until later what he had done.

 

The temple and his teachers had given him all that they could, and now he was free to roam the world and develop his skills even further. That which was forbidden to him would become the basis for his new philosophy. One which valued death, and that granted those who learned his teachings with the power to kill, just as he did.

 

Shinsuke began by taking in children off the streets. He would fill their bellies in return for favors. Soon he began to teach them martial arts as well, as their loyalty and reliance on him as a source of sustenance grew. Then came their test. They were to kill some unsavory people that Shinsuke had found to be the scum of the Earth. He was delighted to find that every one of his students passed their test with flying colors. From then on his requests grew, working up their technique until they with the help of their master slaughtered the martial artists at the temple where Shinsuke had grown up.

 

Several decades have passed since the incident that led to his exile. Shinsuke continues taking children from the street to teach and care for whilst running a little restaurant tucked away in a certain Japanese town..


End file.
